We are looking for a new Systems Director / IT Director to join our successful, family owned-and-run retail business, Pavers. This role will be based at our Head Office in York but can include an element of home working, flexible hours, and/or working from our satellite offices if desired.
Many parts of our systems estate are aged, and we are in the early stages of a full modernisation project designed to take advantage of the automation and simplification opportunities that now exist. Whilst a retail business at our core, our systems and data are a key source of competitive advantage, and an area we continue to invest heavily in. This is especially true given the huge opportunities (and threats) that AI / LLMs will provide in the coming years.
This crucial role is the most senior technology position in the business and is therefore key to our future success. You will have responsibility for a team that includes IT Operations, Software Development, and Systems Modernisation functions. You will sit on the Senior Leadership Team and will be responsible for developing and maintaining a systems estate that delivers our organisational objectives, as well as helping to direct the wider business’ strategy.
The ideal candidate would be a strategic and people-focussed leader, experienced in high-growth environments, and able to drive technological advancements whilst keeping a close eye on costs. You will be expected to define a strategy, articulate a vision, and engage a team of over 40 technical colleagues. We will give you the trust, autonomy, and investment to succeed. In return we ask you to be friendly, work hard, and act with humility.
Pavers has been trading for over 50 years and is a highly profitable and fast-growing family business with a strong balance sheet and a turnover over £200m. We also own the Jones Bootmaker, Herring Shoes, and Padders / Van Dal footwear business’, remain acquisitive, and employ over 1900 people.We were recently recognised as one of the Top 5 employers in Retail (Best Companies), are Carbon Neutral, have donated more than £2m to charity in the past 5 years, and are currently undertaking a significant expansion and modernisation of our York head office.
Key responsibilities:
* Develop and lead our long-term technical strategy to help deliver our company goals
* Provide inspirational leadership, support, and guidance to the team, motivating them to hit delivery deadlines and communicating progress in the appropriate senior forums
* Improve departmental productivity through effective prioritisation, and the use of automation and LLMs
* Lead the Heads of Departments managing development, infrastructure and support teams
* Help identify and define business improvement, security enhancement, cost-reduction, and growth opportunities through technical innovation
* Deliver business-wide technical improvements
* Ensure board level stakeholder engagement
* Set cost-conscious budgets, define objectives, monitor workflows, identify, and fill resource gaps, and implement and refine processes as required
* Management of key external vendors
* Establish and monitor key performance metrics
Ideal candidate:
* Experience working as an IT Director / CTO / CIO / Head of IT (ideally within a matrix structure) at C-Suite/board level, with a history of delivering significant commercial competitive advantage
* Experience leading large, multi-team IT functions ideally within an established business who have undertaken a modernisation programme
* A proven track record of motivating technical teams to deliver outperformance, including the deployment of productivity tools and automation
* Evidence of delivering business improvement through technical change and innovation
* Excellent team leadership capabilities and familiarity with the Agile development framework
* Positive, engaging, inclusive attitude and management style
* Significant experience working within a Retail and/or family business
* Possess the ability to influence others and drive their team’s development
* Is gritty, resilient, candid, and operates with honesty, integrity, and a willingness to share learning and knowledge
* Championspersonal and team development
* Adapts quickly to change and juggles conflicting demands calmly when under pressure
* Has a passion for footwear, a sense of humour, and a general drive to just get things done!
Technical awareness
* Microsoft SQL
* Javacript
* VB.NET, C#, Javascript (REACT, Nuxt)
* Windows Server
* VMWare
* IP Networking
* Linux
* AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
* Shopify / eCommerce platforms
* Snowflake / Data warehousing
* Tableau
* Telephony
Benefits/Package:
* Salary: £Generous plusLTIP, annual profit related bonus scheme, PMI cover, car allowance, death in service plus:
* Generous Staff Discount
* Holiday Entitlement (Increases with service)
* Company Contribution Pension
* Access to RetailTRUST (Wellbeing Support)
* Access to RetailCURE (Financial Support)
* Access to the Pavers Foundation: an employee-led grant application and charitable giving scheme
About Us
We are passionate about providing comfort and happiness to our customers, and we make sure to employ people who are as passionate as we are. We always look for happy, confident, upbeat people, and we provide great jobs in a supportive family environment for them. We know that without our colleagues there is no business, and so the better we look after you, the better service you will provide our customers. We always try and do the right thing by our people.
We strive for diversity of thinking across the business and believe strongly in supporting our local communities. In 2018 we donated over £2.2m to establish the Pavers Foundation, with the specific purpose of providing grants for causes important to all our colleagues in the areas of health, education, and community. In terms of the environment, we are constantly seeking to reduce our impact.
Since 2021 we have been fully carbon neutral, and we also have one of the largest solar arrays in the North-East of England on our warehouse generating clean energy. Because every year we give a percentage of our annual profits to our Foundation, our overarching aim is to be financially successful, but to achieve this in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.
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